Chapter ISABELLA to Isolt of I by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Islands of the Blest, called by the Greeks “Happy Islands,” and by the Latins “Fortunate Islands;” imaginary islands somewhere in the West, where the favourites of the gods are conveyed at death, and dwell in everlasting joy.

Their place of birth alone is mute
To sounds that echo further west
Than your sire’s Islands of the Blest.
   —Byron.

Isle of Lanterns, an imaginary country, inhabited by pretenders to knowledge, called “Lanternois.”—Rabelais: Pantagruel, v. 32, 33 (1545).

Lucian has a similar conceit, called The City of Lanterns; and dean Swift, in his Gulliver’s Travels, makes his hero visit Laputa, which is an empire of quacks, false projectors, and pretenders to science.

Isle of Mist, the Isle of Skye, whose high hills are almost always shrouded in mist.

Nor sleep thy hand by thy side, chief of the Isle of Mist.—Ossian: Fingal, i.

Isle of Saints, Ireland. So called in the early Middle Ages, from the readiness with which its people accepted the Christian faith; and also from the number of its learned ecclesiastics.

Islington (The marquis of), one of the companions of Billy Barlow the noted archer. Henry VIII. jocosely created Barlow “duke of Shoreditch,” and his two companions “earl of Paneras” and “marquis of Islington.”

Ismael “the Infidel,” one of the Immortal Guard.—Sir W. Scott: Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

(Lord Lytton, at the age of 15, wrote an Oriental tale so called. It was published in 1820.)

Ismene and Ismenias, a love story in Greek by Eustathius, in the twelfth century. It is puerile in its delineation of character, and full of plagiarisms; but many of its details have been copied by D’Urfé, Montemayor, and others. Ismenê is the “dear and near and true” lady of Ismenias.

N.B.—Through the translation by Godfrey of Viterbo, the tale of Ismenê and Ismenias forms the basis of Gower’s Confeisso Amantis, and Shakespeare’s Periclês Prince of Tyre.

Ismeno, a magician, once a Christian, but afterwards a renegade to Islam. He was killed by a stone hurled from an engine.—Tasso: Jerusalem Delivered, xviii. (1575).

Isocrates (The French), Esprit Fléchier, bishop of Nismes (1632–1710).

Isoline , the high-minded and her oic daughter of the French governor of Messina, and bride of Fernando (son of John of Procida). Isoline was true to her husband, and true to her father, who had opposite interests in Sicily. Both fell victims to the butchery called the “Sicilian Vespers” (March 30, 1282), and Isoline died of a broken heart.—Knowles: John of Procida (1840).

Isolt (so Tennyson, in The Last Tournament, spells the name Ysolt. q.v.). There are two ladies connected with Arthurian romance of this name: one, Isolt “the Fair,” daughter of Anguish king of Ireland; and the other Isolt “of the White Hands,” daughter of Howell king of Brittany. Isolt the Fair was the wife of sir Mark king of Cornwall, but Isolt of the White Hands was the wife of sir Tristram. Sir Tristram loved Isolt the Fair; and Isolt hated sir Mark, her husband, with the same measure that she loved sir Tristram, her nephew-in-law. Tennyson’s tale of the death of sir Tristram is so at variance with the romance, that it must be given separately. He says that sir Tristram was one day dallying with Isolt the Fair, and put a ruby carcanet round her neck. Then, as he kissed her throat—

Out of the dark, just as the lips had touched,
Behind him rose a shadow and a shriek—
“Mark’s way!” said Mark, and clove him thro’ the brain.
   —Tennyson: The Last Tournament. (See Isond.)